It is known to provide for wheeled vehicles and especially for pneumatic-tire wheeled vehicles such as tractors, trucks, passenger automobiles and even two-wheel vehicles, traction-increasing devices which may be referred to as traction chains or tire chains, so as to increase the traction between the wheel and the road or ground surface, especially under conditions in which a high degree of slip may be expected.
Such conditions are snow and ice conditions primarily but may also be other conditions in which skidding is possible.
The devices are known as snow chains, tire chains or the like and may include an actual chain structure provided with one or more traction elements which lie across the breadth of the tread of the tire and bite into the ice or snow.
Traction elements in this type have a wide variety of shapes or forms and may include rubber bars or the like spanning the tread of the tire, metal ribs or bars which are linked together to form the chain or are spaced apart and are connected to the chain which is used to fit the traction elements onto the tire. Traction chains or elements of the aforedescribed type may be also used for tractors or construction machinery so as to increase the bite of the wheels in soft ground.
In general, the traction elements hitherto used are prone to wear, readily lose their ability to bite into the snow, ice or ground, and have other disadvantages with respect to the way in which they are attached to the chain or are held onto the wheel.